Apple's iPad won't be available in the company's brick-and-mortar stores until this Saturday, but on Monday Cupertino added a series of videos to its website that provide more detail on the device's "magical and revolutionary" capabilities - and The Reg sat through each self-congratulatory video to give you a deep-dive preview. …

So.....

So + ....

Irrelevant ... I think Jobs already declared that nobody would read for long enough for that to become an issue. Apart from the fact that that comment misses a whole lot of points regarding battery life and comparitive advantages of say Kindle as a reading device akin to a book that can be flung in a backpack and caried around ona roadtrip for 'the right moment' - it is also a sad comment on the fact that while aiming to capture a share of the ebook market, Jobs will probably do a good job of part killing it by 'weaning' readers off and onto other forms of entertainment ... pull my finger ... again ... again ...

battery life

Per testing, with backlight at sufficient levels to use the device for watching a movie in a bright room (backlight up at least half way), and watching that movie streaming over WiFi, more than 10 hours.... playing music with screen off was measured in days, not hours.

Standby time (on with screen off, as your phone does), is 30 DAYS. it has a hell of a battery. This is not a concern.

Retarded?

Grow up please

"So WTF is the point of this piece of kit. Only a retard would buy this"

That's about as sensible as saying "So an EOS 7D shoots video? What's the big deal. My phone can shoot video for free. Only a retard would buy a 7D".

You're talking about completely different devices, aimed at very different markets and different purposes.

As it happens, I don't think I'd ever buy a 7D. I'm perfectly happy with the pictures I can get with an Ixus that fits in my pocket. If I did decide I want a 7D that certainly wouldn't make me a retard though.

Quite

Preferences ...

I pretty much agree with your sentiment ... but let's just remember that as long as there are multiplte tastes, needs, wants etc. in the world - there will be multiple products pandering to different tastes and I suspect that there is a market where the iPad makes the most sense.

Note to Apple Fanbois ... if you were not so smug about everything Apple and remembered that Apple PC's, phones etc. are still the minority of 'gadgets' in the world and and that because YOU like Apple kit, it does not represent an objective benchmark, then you would not be called 'retards' as in the above post.

Logic

Never seen a Tablet PC that cost $499 - in fact given that most cost over $1000 and are twice, maybe three times as thick as the iPad then yes, I'd damn well expect it to connect to a projector for free.

sorry to point this out but...

@Mat

"So WTF is the point of this piece of kit.

Only a retard would buy this."

So your argument against it is that you don't understand it?

Since we've been round this argument about a hundred times already in the Register comments on other iPad articles, I can only assume you haven't read them and that this is a completely uninformed opinion.

RE: Preferences

"Note to Apple Fanbois ... if you were not so smug about everything Apple and remembered that Apple PC's, phones etc. are still the minority of 'gadgets' in the world and and that because YOU like Apple kit, it does not represent an objective benchmark, then you would not be called 'retards' as in the above post."

Umm but he was calling anyone who thought they might like an iPad a "retard". That's not just drooling fanbois that's all potential customers.

...and if you suspect that "there is a market where the iPad makes the most sense" then presumably that makes you a retard too!

weak effort

Dock connector to VGA and doc to progressive cables can easily be found for as little at $10. Also, your netbook that can do that free didn't come with the cable either... and it can't do 720P h.264 video either, which is kind of a drawback for any real presentation nowadays, where the inclusion of video clips is merely assumed.

Sorta

Not Bluetooth. Bluetooth is still a no no in terms of general connectivity. You can only communicate with other iPhoneOS devices via bluetooth, not with anything else. This is one of the most annoying limitations of the iPhoneOS*, and one which no amount of enhancement requests has managed to alleviate. You won't be able to tether your iPhone with it, either.

For some reason, Jobs, or whoever is calling the shots hates Bluetooth. But then IIRC Job's used to hate all networking and Apple engineers had to sneak the capability into their products without him knowing.

Still not terribly exciting

So far, the examples here don't see too terribly tablet-centric. H*ll, they look like they could be implemented on an Archos if you just applied the programming talent and "polish" that the guys in Cupertino have to the current Archos hardware.

When I first heard the details of the iPad, I started shopping the competition. That hasn't changed. As I suspected, it seems that much of the usefulness of multi-touch is in dealing with the screen size limitations on the smaller Apple devices.

DYFR

"Never seen a Tablet PC that cost $499 - in fact given that most cost over $1000 and are twice, maybe three times as thick as the iPad then yes, I'd damn well expect it to connect to a projector for free."

Calling Bovine Excrement

"Bluetooth is still a no no in terms of general connectivity. You can only communicate with other iPhoneOS devices via bluetooth, not with anything else."

Sorry but I've had several people link their ipods and iphones, via bluetooth, with my cars head unit to stream audio and the last time I checked my sony xplod wasn't running iPhoneOS. What you mean by general connectivity is there is no BT sync or file transfer but then why would you with WiFi on board? Yes I know, like everything else, you need an app for that and in this case one is called Air Sharing. Jailbreak not required but money is.

Yes, I do find it a tad ironic that Apple historically was first in including the nice features, e.g. CD/DVD burning, in the desktop OS and yet they leave so many basics out of the handheld OS. It's funny what competition, or a lack thereof, will do.

Call it what you like

Yes, that's why I said "general connectivity", meaning that you can't arbitrarily connect to other devices and send them arbitrary data. Perhaps I should have been clearer. This is simply not an option for iPhoneOS developers. Apple of course can do what they like, but that doesn't include OBEX, or anything else other than the very limited audio/video functionality.

If you want to do general BT connections from an App, you can connect to two things (I missed one possibility, duh) iPhoneOS or a device that carries Apple's ID chip.

So color me an eejut for not saying "People who aren't Apple do not have the option to connect ..." etc, quite correct, well spotted, etc.

Fingers engaging before brain, because I'm still peeved by that particular limitation

@Micheal C: Netbooks can't do 720p?

Eh?

While I agree that the iPhone Bluetooth implementation is limited (though they have added facilities over time, eg wireless audio), I'd disagree about Apple hating Bluetooth per se. To the best of my knowledge, all the Macs currently available have an excellent Bluetooth implementation and it's used for all Apple wireless keyboards and mice. "Excellent", as in it works, unlike the Bluetooth on my sister's Toshiba XP laptop, which after about half an hour had steadfastly refused to transfer a photo from her phone (Moto Razr), whereas the whole thing worked in about a minute using her husband's iMac. And FWIW I read somewhere that the iPad supports Bluetooth keyboards, which the iPhone doesn't, so far.

Speaking of batteries . .

They give you another one

The battery is of course built-in. If it dies within a reasonable period of time Apple will give you a new one. If it dies outside of the reasonable period of time or if the battery has reached its recharge capacity then Apple will sell you a replacement battery as a service .. you give the ipad to them and they give you a new one (new battery and new casing, possibly old mainboard etc).

Did you?

One killer app so far

The powerpoint clone is probably the killer app here.

It can allow 2-4 people to sit down and has out an idea without having to fight for a keyboard and mouse or having to shell the crazy amount of money for ideas like the interactive table (was that Microsoft who did that one).

The funny bit is that this is a business killer app, while the device is oriented towards consumer space and I have yet to see a convincing reason to buy it as a consumer.

yet research shows that Powerpoint is a waste ot time for imparting info

"A" killer app, not "one"

Keynote is a powerful app for the iPad, I'm not disagreeing. however, its not the "one" killer app, it's just one of many. The real killer app for most people is simply that it can plan H.264 720P video (and per the chipset specs 1080p, though there's no HDMI connector to support it yet). No netbook under $699 can do that, let alone one with a touchscreen, 10 hours of video playback on the battery, and as thin and light, and of course, no portrait mode.

Then there's the simple idea that is requires no software licenses of it's own. multiple iPads and iPhones can all share purchased apps. There's no AV to buy, no $149-399 Office license, and more.

Oh, and it plays GAMES, lots and lots of glorious 3D games that cost $0-10 that 2 years ago cost $30 on the Nintendo DS, and they look better on the pad than on the DS and approach that of the PS2.

Oh, and MY personal favorite: like a phone, it's ALWAYS ON, always in touch with notifications, and has near zero boot time when i want to look up something quick i just saw on TV or heard in a discussion. For me, no boot time is the killer app!

(I'm still not buying one until at least Christmas though, as awesome as it is, i have other priorities).

What he said

"Oh, and MY personal favorite: like a phone, it's ALWAYS ON, always in touch with notifications, and has near zero boot time when i want to look up something quick i just saw on TV or heard in a discussion. For me, no boot time is the killer app!"

That's definitely a killer app for me, although in my specific case it will mean that the thing is actually used, rather than just left in the dev cave.

I have a tablet PC netbook type thing, which I bought partly for this very reason. That was before I added an iPhone to the dev cave. It is far quicker to reach for the iPhone than the tablet, now if only it had a bigger screen ...

Also : @ all the "my netbook can do that!" crowd. Even if your netbook has a touchscreen (mine does, neener neener) there is no touch web browser experience that is as good as Safari on the iPhone on your netbook. I can't abide it on the desktop, but on the iPhone it's very nice indeed. Nothing on my netbook is as good. FF with touch extensions, not so much, still eats CPU when you scroll, jerky, natch. Opera probably comes the closest, but still not quite as good. IE is surprisingly good, but suffers from it's general IE-ness.

What I'm saying here is that yes, your netbook can do that, but it can't do it as well. Primarily because none of the apps on your netbook were designed around a touch specific device and UI.

Some good ideas.....

Ebooks portable?

I'm not remotely interested in buying an iWhatever, but I'd like to know whether the books sold on iTunes are going to use standard epub DRM so I can buy them for my Sony reader, as they'll probably have a better selection available than most of the UK booksellers.

unlikely

Nope

Doubt i'll be buying one...

But i'm starting to see good reasons for its existence (ie: not just a massive iPhone, minus the Phone bit) and can imagine a strong market for it. Love or hate Apple, they're one of the few tech companies capable of pushing innovation to the mainstream

Actual use?

I still can't see a point to the iPad. The touchscreen looks nice, and as someone pointed out the powerpoint clone looks actually useful, but the big iPhone without a phone just seems kinda pointless. Maybe useful for graphic designers? Maybe useful for salesmen? Although a proper tablet pc would be better. Any other ideas, or is it just for people who like new shiny toys?

Re: Actual use?

I think the main market is consumers, but not to say there won't be business applications too. Things like looking up recipes in the kitchen, watching a movie on a plane, keeping kids occupied in the back of car, reading your favourite blogs in bed before you go to sleep, the whole ebook thing.

Sure, you and I know there are plenty of other devices that can already do some or all of these things, but Apple's expertise is knowing how to package it all up and deliver a highly desirable and well designed consumer appliance, not just a piece of geek technology that ticks a lot of boxes on a spec sheet. I suspect the iPad is going to be phenomenally successful therefore.

A retard

Mat, I guess I am a retard.

I only use one browser. Maybe you can explain to us retards why you need multiple ones ?

An SDCARD adapter is not exactly that unusual.. many 'tablet PCs' need them too.

Maybe someone is just a bit put out that they bought a crap tablet PC ? Personally I've had 2 - a fujitsu back in 2002/3 when they came out, and an HP last year. Both have been absolute crap - I imagine something like trying to drive a car with a joystick... wrong interface for the OS.

Even with vista/win7 tablet support is pitiful.

I used to hate macs.. I now have 3 and an iphone. It took a bit of pride swallowing, but take the iphone - pick one up.. play with it for 10 mins. surf a bit on it.. I dare u to try and not find that, despite yourself you actually find it just flows.

THAT will be what sells the iPad, now whether it has an SDCARD adapter or a VGA port hardly anyone will use sticking out the side.

Huh, news to me

Cart ... horse ...

"THAT will be what sells the iPad, now whether it has an SDCARD adapter or a VGA port hardly anyone will use sticking out the side." *

* still to be proven ... at the moment what sells it is nothing other than the Apple brand and marketing ... what buys it is the legion of fanbois with more money than sense to whom 'retard' probably does apply given it is totally unproven, seen etc.

The discerning will wait to see proper reviews, maybe touch and play with one in a shop and then decide if they wish to part with their hard earned cash.

re: Cart ... horse ...

"at the moment what sells it is nothing other than the Apple brand and marketing ... what buys it is the legion of fanbois with more money than sense to whom 'retard' probably does apply given it is totally unproven, seen etc"

Although I think you have a point of sorts about the Apple brand and marketing, you're waaaaaay off the mark with your comment about the fanboys buying it. If you looked at the various Mac-centric forums, you're not seeing big love for the iPad - something that is wanted is an affordable mid-range tower, which ain't going to happen.

A Model-T and 640K is all anyone ever needs.

> I only use one browser. Maybe you can explain to us retards why you need multiple ones ?

See, this is the sort of argument that triggers derision. This isn't about a person using more than one thing at once but having the ability to choose that option that suits them.

It's about being able to install Picasa if iPhoto sucks, Plex if Front Row feels like a straight jacket and VLC if you would rather not dinker with Quicktime plugins to get strange and interesting video files to play.

Although this presupposes you are interested in venturing beyond the little barriers that Apple has set out for you.

If not for "rogue" developers, most of your current computing experience would not exist.